


Cabernet Sauvignon Blanc

by Izzyface



Series: Summer 2017 Olicity-on-Hiatus [5]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Adult Themes, Drug Use (discussed and implied), F/M, S1 Divergent, Tumblr: olicityhiatusproject
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-20
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-11-16 16:09:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11256411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Izzyface/pseuds/Izzyface
Summary: Felicity is at Verdant the night Oliver has his encounter with The Count.Written for the Olicity Summer Hiatus prompt "at odds."





	Cabernet Sauvignon Blanc

**Author's Note:**

> This story is in the same universe as [Whiskey Sour Kisses](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11110599). It's clearly set later on during S1, but it would probably be helpful for you to have read that first. 
> 
> Thanks to my great beta for the idea & look-see at this.

* * *

By this time most nights, Felicity was downstairs running comms for the Hood on his antiquated desktop computer. But tonight was Thea Queen’s _actual_ eighteenth birthday, so Oliver had taken the night off for a small family celebration. Diggle had followed suit and made plans with Carly and AJ. That left her to run diagnostics on Verdant’s network, update their firewall, and play hostess if things got too busy. Otherwise known as the job Oliver _actually_ paid her for.

Tommy was upstairs in his office, but she mostly tried to stay out of his way. Felicity still wasn’t sure what Oliver’s best friend knew and didn’t know about the operation they ran from the club’s basement. The run-ins with Helena had filled in some blanks for him, but Oliver had told her he’d handled it. His tone of voice indicated he didn’t want to elaborate, so she hadn’t pushed. The dark-haired playboy was always friendly towards her, but Felicity felt like she was under a microscope around him. Since their one night together, she sometimes felt she had ‘I slept with Oliver Queen’ printed across her forehead in flashing, bold scrawl. As his longtime wingman, she was certain Tommy could sense it. 

As for her and Oliver, they were… complicated. The business of the Hood made them complicated. She _liked_ him. She liked him enough that she was considering staying in Starling City once her lease ran out (she’d yet to give her rental company notice, which was going to cost her a pretty penny one way or another). Working as his IT girl at night and doing other consult work during the day was allowing her to avoid Tech Village, for now. Plus, when it was all said and done, Felicity really wanted to know _why_ Walter had fired her. Everything else they’d learned about him indicated he was a good guy. Of course, they needed to _find_ Walter first. The man had disappeared shortly before Christmas, along with the remains of the Queen’s Gambit. How a yacht just vanished, she didn’t know, but it was a mystery she was going to solve. 

Felicity wasn’t _that girl_ … the one who made decisions based on a guy. No matter if the guy was Oliver or Walter. For now, she was committed to solving the mystery that was Walter Steele, but otherwise—

“Felicity?” her earpiece crackled to life.  

“Yes?”

“Marissa’s going to take her break. Any chance you can cover her tables for fifteen?” She looked up and saw Tommy leaning against the upstairs railing. She nodded and went off in search of the red-headed waitress.

Once she’d visited all of Marissa’s tables, Felicity still had seven minutes to kill. She made her way to the bar and rested her hip against a stool. The bartender passed her a glass of water and she smiled in thanks. The wait staff wasn’t supposed to partake in drinks in the open, but it wasn’t a rule Oliver ever told her about. Tommy never enforced it with her either. The only reason she knew about it was whispers from the other girls. There’d been multiple times she’d sat at a high top with Oliver and a glass of red wine while she was “working” and she’d be an idiot not to see the glances thrown her way. But they kept their thoughts to themselves. Felicity was aware that most of them thought she was the boss’ _girl_ and she was okay with that. She and Oliver knew the truth and knew what they were to each other.

The blonde was scanning the crowd when she saw Laurel Lance stomping towards her. Ugh. Not what she needed tonight.

The lawyer was wearing her version of a power suit—heels, pants that were fitted but stopped above her ankles, a blazer, and a camisole. Her brown hair was flying behind her. Felicity glanced up and saw that Tommy had disappeared from the balcony. Huh. Wonder what that was about.

“Hello, Laurel.” In Felicity's experience it was easier to acknowledge the other woman first than wait for her acidic words to hit you.

The other woman addressed the bartender. “I’d like a vodka soda.” Then Laurel looked over at Felicity. “Where’s Ollie?”  

“ _Oliver_ ,” Felicity emphasized, “Is with his family. It’s Thea’s birthday.”

“You didn’t get an invite?” the brunette sneered. The bartender set her drink in front of her. “Since you’re still around, I assume you’re still the flavor of the month.”

Felicity felt her cheeks bloom with color. She wanted to deny it, but it wasn’t worth wasting her breath. Clearly Laurel was going to be believe whatever she believed. “Why do you care so much? Aren’t you and Tommy living together? What does it matter who Oliver is seeing or not?”

“I just think he can do better, is all.” She ran her eyes up and down Felicity. “You can take the girl out of the trailer park, but it’s hard to take the trailer park out of the girl.”

“You _bitch_ —”

“Hey,” Oliver interrupted. His hand went to Felicity’s back. “I was looking for you.”

Felicity watched as Laurel’s face transformed from a sneer into a smile. “Ollie!” The other woman reached forward and pressed her hand to his forearm. “I was just asking where you were. She said you weren’t here.”

He shifted Felicity so that she was between the two of them and pulled his forearm away. “I just got here, Laurel.” Oliver glanced down at Felicity. “Let Tommy know I need to steal you for a bit.”

Felicity nodded and reached for her ear piece. Marissa was due back anyway.

“Ollie—”

“Not now, Laurel.” He never took his gaze off Felicity. The hand on her back drifted over to her hip and his eyes went to her lips. “You ready?”

Felicity glanced between Oliver and Laurel, knowing what message the other woman was getting. Fuck it. She didn’t care if Laurel thought she was sleeping with him or not. Felicity liked him. She’d figured everything else out in time. “Yeah.” The blonde stepped away and took the hand that was on her hip in hers. “Lead the way.”

Oliver intertwined their fingers and lead her out the front door. Laurel’s eyes never left them. As soon as they exited the club, Oliver dropped her hand and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. He leaned in to whisper in her ear, “I visited the Count earlier. He got half a syringe full of Vertigo in me before I got away. The syringe is in my pocket. Once we get downstairs, I need you to analyze it. See if we can use that to find where he’s operating out of.”

“Are you okay?” she asked. Felicity reached over and ran her hand down his chest. She didn’t see any visible needle wounds. “You shouldn’t have gone out by yourself, Oliver. Where’d he get you at? Did you _drive_ yourself here?”

“I’m high, Felicity. And I can already tell you I want more. I shouldn’t want more yet. I haven’t even started to come down. But I guess that’s why Vertigo is the club drug everyone wants right now.” He brushed his nose over the shell of her ear. “You smell good.” Oliver used his tongue to trace across the top. “Miss you.”

She shifted away from him. “We’re almost there, Oliver. Hold on. You can take your special island herbs for this, right?”

“It’s a nice feeling,” he told her. “I used to get high before the Gambit. Mostly pot, but sometimes X if Tommy and I went to a party. It would make me feel all floaty and want to dance. Pot just made me want to laugh and eat. I was never one for anything heavier, like some of our friends. Carter Bowen used coke and Ritalin all through Harvard. The fucker would brag about it, too. Like being a cokehead was something to be proud of. I always preferred booze. I knew what I was getting the next morning.” Oliver ran his nose against her ear again. “What kind of shampoo do you use? Smells like grapefruit and something else.”

“It’s camellia petals,” Felicity answered. They’d reached the hidden door to the Foundry and she leaned him against the wall. “Stay there.” One of the first things she’d done when she’d agreed to help was upgrade the security, so both of the doors now had alphanumeric codes on them. “I’ve never been high.”

“Never?”

She shook her head. “Nope. The closest I came was in college when I accidentally ate a pot brownie at a party. But I had to be rushed to the ER because of—”

“Your nut allergy.”

“You remember that?”

“I remember everything, Felicity.” He remembered things he wished he could forget. Things he wanted to forget, but couldn’t block from his mind no matter how hard he tried.

Felicity couldn’t handle the way he was looking at her right now. From half-lidded eyes. Like he’d seen her naked. Like they’d spent the night together, just talking and laughing. Like he wasn’t the one who decided they were better off not being together. He was looking at her like she was water and he hadn’t had a drink in weeks. “I drank, of course. What college kid didn’t? Cooper and Myron both liked to smoke pot and then code, but I had asthma as a kid, so the idea of smoking something scared me…” She was aware she was rambling, but she couldn’t stop herself. “College is where I learned that I liked whiskey over fruity girly drinks. That I liked red wine over white, unlike most girls there.”

“Whiskey sours,” he recalled. “I thought that was a weird drink for such a pretty girl.”

The lock clicked open and Felicity propped the door before she came back to him. “C’mon.” She took his weight again. “Let’s get you inside. You need to sleep this off and I need to start analyzing the sample.”

Felicity walked him to her computer chair and helped him sit. “If you wait here, I’ll get the herbs.” When she went to walk away, the blonde was stopped by his hand on hers.

“I fight myself every single day, you know? For years, the only thing driving me was getting back here so I could honor my father, and now that I have the chance, I’m finding that it’s not the only thing I want anymore. It’s strange, having these two parts of myself being at odds. Every night since that night, I’ve wanted nothing more than to come to you, to crawl in your bed, and wrap myself around you. To get lost in you.” Oliver looked up at her again. “Suddenly _you’re_ my drug, Felicity. And I want more every day.”

“This was your call,” she whispered. This wasn’t something they talked about. Oliver decided they were nothing more than a one night stand and no matter how much she argued, he’d stood strong. He didn’t get to do this to her. Not here, not now.

“I want to be worthy of you, Felicity.” He turned her hand over and locked their fingers. “I want to be your partner in every sense of the word, not just in name. I want to bring something to the relationship that’s not just a broken shell of a man.” Oliver exhaled loudly. “I need to be able to trust myself as much as you trust me.”  

Felicity felt the tears spring to her eyes and wiped at them with the back of her free hand. She studied him for a moment longer and then exhaled. Carefully, she stepped forward and pressed a kiss to his lips. It was quick and not meant to be romantic. His lips were warm and soft against hers and she sighed. As much as she wanted to deepen it, Felicity forced herself to pull away from him. “That’s not how I see you at all, Oliver.”

When she stepped back, she dropped his hand and turned towards his island box. If there was any sort of God at all, Oliver wouldn’t remember any of this in the morning. She was more than willing to carry this burden for him, for now. He had enough on him.


End file.
